Reaching Beyond Myself

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Cotton balls, snow balls and **ahem** other balls.....

Cotton balls.........a mom's new best friend?.........hmmmToday, I had Addy's parent/teacher conference.Rest assure, she's a genius :)She is proficient in math, word sounds, reading, reading comprehension. Translation: she is where the teacher would expect her to be heading into 1st grade and she's already there!!

As I trail off into a beautiful daydream, involving my beautiful daughter, Harvard applications and future presidential efforts, I realize the teacher is still talking to me.......oops....

My cheeks turn red and I come back to reality.

I hear her say something about......handwriting.....

oh yes, right, handwriting........fine motor skills......please work on at home.....

She's struggling with her fine motor skills....right...... "a leftover from her premature birth", I think to myself as the teacher continues.....

"So Mrs. D, if you could just get her a bag of cotton balls, a close pin and a bucket, have her take the cotton balls out with the clothes pin......make it a fun game!" The teacher finishes saying.

"Wow", I think to myself, "creative, efficient and cost-effective, no wonder I love her teacher."So cotton balls.......

"Absolutely, I will get some right away." I assure her teacher as I wave from the classroom doorway.

The Plan: to start with cotton balls and graduate up to the one hand-held paper puncher before 1st grade. After that the sky is the limit....."hmmmm", I wonder to myself as I drive away in my SUV, "I wonder how much I will need to raise for Harvard?"Snow balls........Being from the frigid and dreary state of Michigan, the only exciting event in the winter was making and playing in the snow. As an adult, I figured moving from the Sunshine state, back to a cold, Midwestern state like Missouri, would bring back this seasonal gift for my children.

Wrong.

Instead, we've learned Missouri's snow last for about an hour once it has landed. The 1/16th of an inch that arrives quickly turns into slush or worse......ice

Well this small phenomena doesn't stop my children from wanting to make snow balls........

~Which leads me to my next statement~

In the event that I meet my Maker after being bludgeoned to death with an ice ball to the temple. I leave all of my blog space to my dear friend, rainydayinmay, who helped get me mildly addicted to said space.

To reach beyond oneself, is to truly be self-sacrificing. To look beyond the limits past the outer walls, means to have faith there is something there, someone there waiting for you to get there.
Reaching beyond myself is a place I need to live in daily, yet fail at miserbly.
Fumble along with me as I journey through learning how to balance parenting, marriage, work, and health on this fast track called L.I.F.E.